Second seating in Britannia Restaurant - advice appreciated

[GeorgianGal100]

Hello, I have booked a short cruise on Queen Victoria and will be dining in the Britannia restaurant.  I have put in a preference for the second seating and I know this can't be guaranteed.  My question is, based on seeing a couple of you tube videos with a bit of a queue forming to get into the restaurant, are you expected to arrive bang on the seating time or do people stagger their arrivals?  I am keen not to annoy any passengers or staff by arriving late as this will be our first cruise, but also don't particularly want to queue up.  Any advice from experience would be greatly appreciated.

[carlmm]

You are expected to arrive within a couple of minutes. Officially orders are taken for 30 minutes.

The potential queue moves very fast once the doors open. I wouldn't even call it a queue, more just people arriving a little bit early. 

[GeorgianGal100]

11 minutes ago, carlmm said:

You are expected to arrive within a couple of minutes. Officially orders are taken for 30 minutes.

The potential queue moves very fast once the doors open. I wouldn't even call it a queue, more just people arriving a little bit early. 

Thank you so much for the reply, that's really helpful!

[Host Hattie]

There can sometimes be a queue on the first night as everyone has to be shown to their table. It would be unusual to queue on another night.

If you're sharing a table the waiter will usually wait until everyone has arrived to take orders.

[GeorgianGal100]

41 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

There can sometimes be a queue on the first night as everyone has to be shown to their table. It would be unusual to queue on another night.

If you're sharing a table the waiter will usually wait until everyone has arrived to take orders.

Thank you, yes I suspected that might happen on the first night.  We have requested a table for two but are happily prepared to share if we're allocated a larger table.  I'm glad you mentioned about the waiter  usually waiting for others to arrive, we hate holding people up.

This is a wonderful forum, I'm constantly on this great site at the moment trying to familiarise myself with life on board and what to expect.  I'm fairly certain it will be an improvement on the only time I have been on a ship overnight from Nice to Bastia.  We were shown to our room which hadn't been cleaned properly so the steward asked us to wait and then came back with a smelly mop.  He hurled it around the floor leaving a disinfectant smell which combined with the diesel odour and porthole that didn't open made me very glad to get off the next morning.   No dressing for dinner on that ship!

[Kristal Blade]

We are currently second seating on Mary. First night had a big queue, since then we turn up about 7.45 ask for a shared table and usually have a very short wait till we are joined by others. It’s great to get back to dining and chatting with interesting people from all over the world!

[GeorgianGal100]

25 minutes ago, Kristal Blade said:

We are currently second seating on Mary. First night had a big queue, since then we turn up about 7.45 ask for a shared table and usually have a very short wait till we are joined by others. It’s great to get back to dining and chatting with interesting people from all over the world!

Thanks Kristal Blade, Is it usual that you can change your seating plans or is it just On Queen Mary at the moment due to reduced capacity? I hope you're having a fabulous time.

[Kristal Blade]

I think at second seating they have turned it into a more “open dining” thing on QM2. 
We have had tables for 2, 6 and 8 on different nights.

As usual on a cruise ship, just ask and you shall receive.

 

First night I had 2 desserts because I couldn’t make my mind up. Every night my husband has a side of ice cream with dessert, apart from last night when we needed extra crème anglaise. I also have extra veg with my main course every night.

I’m having a good time, thanks. It’s lovely to be sailing again.